Denial isn't Just a River
by Pomegranate Gumdrop
Summary: What happens when one day, Natsu admits his feelings fro Lucy in the wrong way? How will he fix it? Rated T just in case.


**A/N: This is my first ever fan-fiction. I've been meaning to write one but I couldn't sit down and gather all my thoughts, but here it is. Tell me what you think. Thank you ^_^ Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail, I own nothing.**

* * *

It was a normal day for Magnolia's favorite guild, Fairy Tail. As usual, Natsu Dragneel and Gray Fullbuster were at each other's throats, yelling obscenities that could be heard by just about everyone in a one hundred mile radius.

"You don't know what you're talking about! Just shut your mouth, you stupid stripper!" Natsu bellowed. Some of the guild members were slowly ending their own conversations to hear what all the commotion was about. Normally, they would just chalk it up to a case of clashing egos and a long history of dislike, but for some reason, this argument seemed fueled with something temperature was steadily rising to sweltering temperatures in the building; the fire mage was beyond angry and was itching to wrap his hands around the cold man's throat.

"It's clear as day, flame-brain; everyone can see it. Just admit it already!" Gray, who was unconsciously unbuttoning his shirt (earning an almost silent squeal from a certain water mage), roared back. He was tired of Natsu dancing around the situation. If he didn't realize it soon, he would lose out on such a great opportunity. Although he didn't like him, the idiot was still his friend, whom he cared for.

Natsu was tired of hearing the same damn things from that no good ice princess. He decided to settle things the "good 'ol Fairy Tail way." Suddenly, though not unexpectedly, Natsu flung a chair at the opposing ice mage, but he ducked, sending the chair flying into the next unsuspecting guild patron, who happened to be Elfman. It crumbled to pieces next to the take-over mage's body, which was now sprawled out on the cold hardwood floor of the main guild hall.

"It is manly to fight back!" he yelped once he gathered himself off of the guild floor. He then proceeded to hurl his mug in Natsu and Gray's general direction, but instead it hit Macao square in the back of the head, shattering into a million glass shards. The guild was in complete silence for all of two seconds before pandemonium broke out and most of the members were participating in a giant brawl. Tables, chairs, even people were being catapulted around the newly rebuilt guild hall, causing damage that was sure to make the mini master of the establishment infuriated.

At the bar, the resident Celestial Spirit mage, Lucy Heartfilia, was sipping on a vanilla milkshake, swinging her feet and humming to a silent tune. Recently, she had felt that her favorite dragon slayer was growing farther and farther away from her. The blond was forever grateful to him for bringing her to Fairy Tail, and sometime along the way, she had fallen deeply and irrevocably in love with him. The fact that he wasn't even sneaking into her bedroom through her window to eat all of her food and sleep in her bed anymore was making the gash in Lucy's heart that much bigger.

Longingly, she gazed over her shoulder to see Natsu and Gray locked in a heated battle. Lucy wished that she could get her feelings across to him, but every time she tried, someone would interrupt her and pull the pink-haired mage's attention away.

"Mavis, please just give me a sign about his feelings!" she hissed silently. If she didn't figure this out soon, she would be forced to give up all hope of a romantic relationship between her and the fire mage. Sighing dejectedly, the busty blond went back to drinking her milkshake and drawing invisible sad faces on the bar.

Back in the middle of the bout, Natsu was at his limit. He was slowly losing control of his steadily rising anger, and he needed to get out of there soon. Dodging a projectile that looked striking similar to his furry, blue-haired friend, the dragon slayer threw a jab that landed in between the ice mage's eyes. Gray went sailing backwards and into the table that Laxus and the Raijinshu were occupying. This added the thunder dragon slayer, Freed, and Bickslow into the pot that was the enormous free-for-all.

"Just fess up already! Say it!" Gray howled, slowly lifting himself out of the rubble, trying one more time to get Natsu's head out of his ass. If this didn't work, he was sure that he would be a lonely idiot for the rest of his life.

"I'M NOT IN LOVE WITH LUCY! NEVER HAVE BEEN AND NEVER WILL BE! I MEAN, WHY WOULD I LOVE HER?" the pink-haired man snarled at the top of his lungs. Every thing, as if frozen in time, stopped. Fists were halted in the middle of assaults, future missiles were dropped to the ground and every guild member paused with similar gaping looks of horror on their faces.

Slowly, every one in attendance turned their heads to the bar where the mentioned blond was sitting. Her shoulders were subtly shaking and her sniffled were as loud as the rain now falling outside of the completely silent guild. Throwing her stool in the opposite direction with the force of her action, Lucy stood up and quickly ran out of the guild doors. Even with her speed, the tears freely roaming down her face were clear as day (well not that day) to everyone in the building.

The looks of pity and compassion were replaced with looks of anger and controversy when the gazes turned from the overturned barstool to the guilty looking fire dragon slayer. There was a pregnant silence in the room, and no one knew when to deem it okay to speak again. Most were in shock of the confrontation. Many people were rooting for the fire mage to be with Lucy, and his open declaration of wanting the exact opposite put most of the guild member's shipping dreams to rest.

Natsu was standing in the midst of the battle. He had been too ashamed to look directly at Lucy's face, but the smell of her freshly shed tears hit his nose like a punch in the face and hit his stomach like a sack of rocks. His pants from the previous altercation were dying down to even intakes of breath, but he could not stop his shuddering from the overwhelming feeling of loss that settling just below the rocks in his gut.

"Lu-chan, wait!" a small, blue haired mage said. Levy was just starting to run after her best friend when she stopped directly in front of Natsu. She reared her hand back and a thunderous slap sounded to the formerly silent guild hall.

"That's for Lu-chan, you jerk", she huffed, barely above a whisper before she ran off after the celestial mage into the pouring rain. Slowly, everyone else filtered out of the guild, passing Natsu and saying little, "I knew he would screw it up", or "He doesn't even deserve her" under their breaths, knowing that his heightened senses would allow him to hear every heartbreaking comment, before filtering out of the guild. The last person standing there was Mirajane, who was giving him a look that no one else in the guild had given him; it was a look of sorrow and sheer determination.

"I didn't mean it, Mira. I swear that I didn't. That was just the first thing that came out. I... I do love Lucy. I love her more than anything.

I would do anything for her, but here I am, making her cry when I should be the one drying her tears. What should I do?" he questioned, grabbing at his rose colored locks. He was never really serious, but when it came to _his_ Lucy, he could instantly sober up.

"I can't really help you with this one, Natsu. Whatever you say know will have to come from you and you alone. Anything else will sound forced she'll grow further away from you. Hurry up. I believe in you, Natsu" , Mira included before throwing the key to the guild at him, knowing his reflexes would kick in, and turned around, opening her umbrella and walking into the rain.

_'What am I gonna do now?' _he thought_. What would make Lucy so happy that she'd have to forgive me?_ Suddenly, an idea was pounding on the door to his mind and he let it enter with a gasp. Natsu ran out of the doors to the guild and locked them securely behind him. He clenched the key tightly in his hand before he dashed off to put his plan into action.

* * *

Lucy ran home. She ran, ignoring the cries from Levy, the warnings from the men about standing too close to the water, and the burning in her lungs telling her to drop. When she was finally able to get to her apartment, she took the stairs two at a time. She hurriedly opened her door to find her house as empty as it had been for weeks now. Upon entering her home, she immediately closed and locked her window, started stripping off her clothes and made her way towards the bathroom. She turned on the tap, not even checking the the temperature of the water, and looked at herself in the mirror. Saying that she looked a mess was an understatement. Her eyes were red and swollen, mascara running a ragged, black waterfall down her puffy cheeks.

"Get over it, Lucy, you knew this would happen", she prodded, challenging herself with her eyes in the mirror to deny the statement. She slipped into the warm tub and let its calming effects work there magic on her aching heart and body. The blond had no idea on how she would get over this. She knew that she loved the pink idiot whole heartedly, but he had just openly admitted to the whole guild that he had no romantic feeling for her whatsoever.

His hurtful words were still ringing in her ears when a knock at her door interrupted the internal struggle plaguing her brain. Deciding that she had, for once, had enough of her glorious bathtub, she stood in the now lukewarm water and grabbed a towel, wrapping it gingerly around her dripping body. She took one last look in the mirror at her now clear face and made her way to the door. Without thought, the Celestial Mage blindly threw the door open, revealing a giant bouquet of pink calla lilies, her favorite. Before she saw a face, a tuft of pink hair snuck from behind the flowers. Soon after, the rumble of a slamming door was heard throughout the apartment building.

"Luce, please open the door", Natsu begged from the other side of the door. He had a perfectly thought out plan: grovel for Lucy's forgiveness, escort her to an expensive dinner and finally profess his love for her. The pinkette had everything planned to a tee and he would execute this perfectly, but the door was quite literally and figuratively getting in his way.

On the other side of the door, Lucy was engaging in an internal war. One side was her heart, that was fighting with all its might to let Natsu in, but her mind, the logical side, was telling her to hide as far away from him as humanly possible. Her flight-or-fight response was on high alert and adrenaline was pumping through her veins at an alarming rate.

"Luce, please, I have a lot of explaining to do", he proclaimed from outside the door. The Celestial mage could practically see him rubbing the small, soft hairs at the nape of his neck in trepidation. She decided that she wanted to test the theory, so she flung the door open and sure enough, the dragon slayer was standing there, balancing the flowers in one hand, while the other was lost behind his head, doing just what she thought he was.

"Come in", Lucy said, turning her back to the stunned man and walking into her apartment. She pointed to the couch, signaling for him to sit. He could also pick up the silent message that she wanted him to stay quiet while he did so. She took a detour to her kitchen and put on a kettle for tea.

Natsu put the bouquet on the table and, instead listening to the curvaceous woman's words, he silently walked up behind her. He decided that now was a good time as any, so he grabbed Lucy's arm, spun her around and planted his lips firmly on hers. He couldn't believe it. He was here, kissing the girl of his (often wet) dreams ,and she was slowly melting into the kiss. His hands went down to grab at her shapely hips and hers wrapped around his neck, tangling themselves in th hair at the nape of his neck. The fire mage poked the pink muscle that lives in his mouth at the the entrance of the blond's and she opened the door for him. The second their tongues touched, a jolt of electricity shot from the tips of Lucy's toes to her fingertips and out of her ears. With the sensual feelings streaming through the both of them and the tea kettle whisting in the background, this was a "movie moment", and they were glad to be the stars. She released a small moan, encouraging the pink haired man to turn his head and deepen the kiss. This was almost too good to be true!

"I'm sorry, Luce", Natsu said in between kisses. "I lied in the guild earlier. I was scared to admit my feelings, but I'm even more scared of losing you", he admitted, punctuating his confession with a chaste kiss.

"Ne, Natsu? Wanna know a secret?", Lucy whispered in his ear, lightly licking the shell and blowing on it, causing a shiver to go down the dragon slayer's spine.

"What?" Natsu questioned, his nerves starting to get the best of him. He didn't know what he would do if Lucy said that she didn't want to be more than friends. The possible rejection burned the back of his throat and made his eyes water. He didn't know what he would do without the fiery blond in front of him.

"I love you", she said tentatively, hiding her shy smile and ever-growing blush behind her hand. If this backfired and Natsu was only kissing her because he felt bad, she would die, not only from heartache, but from embarrassment, too.

"Yosh! I love you, too, Lucy", he cheered, lifting Lucy up and spinning her around, their joyous laughter filling the entire room. "But first, I need to get something straight with everyone", he said, cradling Lucy in his arms and unlocking and jumping out of the window.

* * *

Natsu ran all the way to the guild and threw the doors open, making everyone's eyes harden at the sight of him, and then widen their eyes in confusion at seeing a flushed celestial mage in his arms.

"Everyone listen up!" Natsu bellowed, further capturing the already intrigued crowds attention. "This beautiful woman right here is mine! Whoever even thinks about touching her will have to deal with the mighty Salamander of Fairy Tail!" he announced. For a second, there was a hushed silence that swept over the guild and then there was cheering, loud, rambunctious, get-you-kicked-out-of-your-apartment cheering and a standing ovation for the new and highly anticipated couple.

"Didn't think you had it in you, ash breath", Gray said as he meandered over to where the dragon slayer was standing. He was so glad the the idiot finally made the right decision, even if it took a little bit of fighting to get him there.

"Yeah, and Lucy is going to have my baby soon, so nobody can touch her", Natsu said loudly, once again silencing the entire guildhall. Lucy, who was now being interrogated Mira, Erza, Levy, and most of the other Fairy Tail woman, was shock still, her blush spreading to her neck and the top of her ears.

A resounding "WHAT!?" was passed in the hall by everybody. So is that what had taken them so long to get back?

"How did you impregnate this unmarried woman, Natsu", Erza said, her sword gleaming at said man's throat. A drop of his sweat rolled down his cheek and onto the dangerous weapon, glinting in the florescent lighting of the guild.

"Well, I kissed her..." the fire mage said, a blush rising to his own cheeks.

"And...?" Gajeel questioned.

"And what? That's it", Natsu stated. The entire guild sweat-dropped and hit the floor in pure astonishment at the complete naiveté of the resident trouble maker.

"Natsu, that's not how babies are made!" Lucy yelled in horror and embarrassment. This was the boy that held her heart, but he didn't even know where babies come from.

"Then how, because I want you to have all my babies very soon", the pinkette announced. After some whispered words from Laxus and Gajeel and an intense blush from Natsu, he walked up to Lucy, grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the guild.

"Master, I think we should start building that nursery that we talked about for the guild", Mira said, excited for all the babies soon to come.

"I agree", he said. The old man's outlook for his this new generation of Fairy Tail was incredibly bright.


End file.
